Confident as they are about their eateries, San Diego's top restaurateurs confess to a love-hate relationship with websites like Yelp that offer instantaneous diner reviews, good, bad and otherwise.

Ultimately, though, no matter how successful a restaurant is, customer feedback cannot be ignored, agreed a panel of restaurateurs who spoke Tuesday morning to a group of local professionals at the Hall of Champions.

"Now everyone is a critic," said chef Deborah Scott, a co-owner of the Cohn Restaurant Group's Indigo Grill, Island Prime and C Level. "Some people take it to such a level, they’ll have pictures of the food and critique each dish. At first, I thought, oh I have to change this dish, but you have to act accordingly. Sometimes I have made changes based on what people have said."

Social media was among a number of topics covered during the panel discussion organized by 6 Degrees San Diego, a networking group for business professionals.

Each of the restaurateurs have multiple locations in the county, with some expanding more aggressively than others, most notably Top Chef alum Brian Malarkey and partner James Brennan. Fresh off debuting Herringbone in La Jolla, they plan to open a sixth restaurant later this year in Scottsdale.

Malarkey, who recently took over chef duties at his Gabardine restaurant in Point Loma after letting go of head toque Chad White, said he made the decision after reading feedback on Yelp. He, like others on the panel, acknowledged there will always be missteps when opening new restaurants.

The Gabardine menu, which focused on creative seafood dishes, needed to be more approachable, Malarkey said.

"People were screaming, 'We don’t want this.' They wanted a neighborhood restaurant with good food and didn’t feel they were getting it. At first, I thought I’d lose focus on the other restaurants but once I got on this, I (realized) I can start cooking again and can use this as a test kitchen.

"We can develop recipes here and send them off to the other restaurants. So it’s really fun for me to have a knife in my hand again, and I realized I was missing that."

Here are some other excerpts from this morning's conversation:

San Diego restaurant scene

The past few years have been pretty amazing. With the direction the economy took, people were more discriminating in how they spent their income, so a lot of good operators were able to do well.

It's not just about going out and having dinner anymore. It's the music, lights, atmosphere, the vibe, the service.

Malarkey, co-owner of several restaurants, including Herringbone, Searsucker and Burlap.

Expansion

It’s a lot of trial and error. We try to grow at a pace we can sustain. We started in 2006 and just opened our fourth restaurant. The biggest challenge is consistency. It comes down to the people who work for you, and you have to develop that team.

The first question you need to ask is why is someone going to come here rather than down the street. If you can’t answer that question, don’t put your life savings into it.

Deborah Scott

It took us three years to open our second restaurant...I now look at my five-year old and seven-year-old and look at my quality of life...We need to work toward having a sustainable lifestyle -- for the business and for ourselves.

The perils and pluses of Yelp

I have a love-hate relationship with Yelp. I used to read it when I went to sleep and when I woke up. I finally made my partner change the password...The way we use it is we take all the positive and negative feedback with a grain of salt, but we always extend the invitation to come back.

Kassel

When we first opened Craft & Commerce, we were getting slammed, so our GM had a great idea, let’s respond to everyone...Then Yelp called and said we had to remove almost everything. But why can’t we make this a dialogue? I ultimately came to terms with it.